What an exciting time to be a political addict in Canada. Who says Canadian politics is boring? People who aren't paying attention, that's who. At least four exciting things happened this week. Yes, four.

First, the Mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford, was found in violation of the Conflict of Interest act and...

So in case you hadn't heard there is a by-election coming up on Thursday, three in fact, and the polls look interesting.  The most exciting is the by-election in Calgary Centre where polls indicate a three-way race between the Conservatives, the Liberals and (deep breath) the Green Party.

This Thursday a new treaty is due to come into effect between Canada and China without debate or public discussion. It is called an Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) with China. The basic idea for it is that our companies, both resource companies and others, do not...

Here's a short survey from the Liberal Party on foreign ownership rules for natural resources. There are two interesting things about this. First, foreign ownership of our natural resources, especially by state corporations of other nations, is an important issue Canadians need to talk about more. I'm not especially...

The latest in the lawsuit that alleges that Mr. Ford broke the Municipal Conflict-of-Interest Act (MCIA) for voting to let himself not be charged for failing to repay $3,150 in improper donations to his football foundation is just bizarre.

From the Globe and Mail:

"Like I said,...

Adam Goldenberg has an opinion on strategic campaigning and he is off base in so many ways. Green party leader Elizabeth May has suggested that her party and the NDP refrain from running candidates in the Etobicoke Centre by-election.

But Goldenberg says:

Elections are not primarily about...

Right now, MPs are in parliament for an unprecedented marathon of voting on proposed changes and deletions to the omnibus budget bill C-38. If you've been sleeping under a rock for the past couple weeks or just don't find Canadian politics that riveting, then I don't understand you, but that...

Maybe I'm starting to sound like a shameless Elizabeth May fanboy but that's only because...I'm a shameless Elizabeth May fanboy! How can you not be when she gets up in the House, as she did Monday, and makes an epic speech like this?

The main point of her "point...

It's rare that a government accused of undervaluing science and making policy decisions based on predetermined outcomes, rather than rational analysis, comes straight out and admits that's how they function. But recently, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird did exactly that.

"Why should taxpayers have to pay for more than...

Once again Green Party Member of Parliament Elizabeth May (I never get tired of hearing that phrase) is threatening to stand up for democracy and parliament when almost no one else will. She is planning to use what parliamentary procedures she can to slow the passage of the budget bill as...

Monday's election results in Alberta demonstrate once again the strange outcomes that our First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) voting system can create. A difference in vote percentage between 43 per cent and 34 per cent leads to 61 v.s. 17 seats for the PCs.

Meanwhile, the remaining parties which received about 10...

A common response from many pundits on the recent Conservative budget seems to be: sensible, dull, uncontroversial. David Frum recently published his analysis and went a bit further asking whether or not this budget definitively proves that Canada is the "best-governed country in the advanced democratic world." He thinks it does. His question is...

My head just exploded after reading this article on Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's defeat of his pet subway plan. After losing fairly, 24 - 19 in council, the mayor had this response:

"Obviously the campaign starts now and I'm willing to take anyone on, streetcars against subways, in...

Last night the NDP chose a new leader, Thomas Mulcair. Mulcair was the most reformist candidate that was on offer but he was also not the biggest party insider among the candidates. So in a sense he represents a tradeoff between striking out in bold new directions versus staying the course...

Democracy is the greatest sport on Earth. I feed on elections and leadership contests but I'm kind of glad I don't have a vote this Saturday in the NDP leadership convention. Since I don't have a vote I haven't spent as much time researching all the leaders as I could...

The NDP leadership race is heating up and the most interesting development to me is that there seems to be a competition growing for who can be the most concerned about the sorry state of our democracy and the most committed to fixing it.

Take Peggy Nash, her website...

Maybe you can help me figure something out: How is it exactly that the same Conservative government so against gathering information about law abiding Canadians that they crippled the long form census and scrapped the long gun registry, is now so eager to give police the ability to gather information about Canadians using the...

On Oct. 15 the #occupywallstreet protests will arrive at cities around the world and in one of the birthplaces of the movement in downtown Vancouver. The Vancouver-based magazine Adbusters inspired the protests that have been going on in New York.

The decentralized nature of the protests...

Democracy Week may have come and gone with very little notice in Canada but this turns out to be Election Week. In Alberta, the PC party selected a new leader and thus voters selected a new premier; a woman for the first time ever in Alberta. In Manitoba, the...

Happy Democracy Day Canada!

Wait, what? That's not even...huh?

That's right, Sept. 15 is the International Day of Democracy. The fourth annual! Apparently. I know, I hadn't heard of it either.

I only heard about it because Fair Vote Canada is holding events all week...